Good strategy to become instantly irrelevant, was Nathan’s opinion.
Even though Michael’s family kept the evil in line, a lot of people just didn’t like knowing there was an ultimate authority figure with a stick up their butt about morality and had the ability to kick your ass if you didn’t tow the line. Kind of like a bunch of really old, really rich, really powerful but bratty teenagers.
Nathan considered what he needed to do to find out what was going on and how this affected the American Council and his pack.
Well, fuckity-fuck. It looked like a trip to upper-state New York’s forests were going to be just a dream this time.
Carpathian Mountains, Romania
OK, Michael admitted, it was a little cold. He had been searching through most of the afternoon and had found the location of the cave entrance, but he stumbled upon it just before dark. Since he didn’t want the guides to go down the mountain at that time of day, he grabbed their focus and directed them and Bethany Anne into the cave. The guides wouldn’t remember any of this.
Even with his modified body, the freezing temperature was a little uncomfortable.
About a hundred feet into the cave, he gave the guides suggestions that caused them to prepare their sleeping arrangements and to go to sleep. They would be good until early morning when he would get them to pack their stuff up and go back to the village by a different route.
At this point, Bethany Anne started to get a little apprehensive.
Bethany Anne, Michael and Carl had talked for a while on the journey here. Carl provided her information on the day-to-day activities he and Bill had been handling since Michael really didn’t keep up with it. Carl then provided some of the footage from a couple of takedowns and had shared the shortened video presentation he had made for Michael.
Michael was expecting them to make a good team. Carl was very good with the systems and had been his liaison with the other supernaturals for the last fifteen years and knew who to talk with to narrow down the unknowns on their strikes. He had Carl provide some financial account details with Bethany Anne and explain how to get access to her accounts.
Michael hadn’t really kept up with his children’s families over the years. They had their areas of the world to protect and he had Canada and the U.S. Well, Bill had done the traveling, communicating and protecting until a month ago.
Michael knew something was incredibly fishy about what was happening. Typically the Forsaken wouldn’t try anything directly in the States since he was so close. While he had been sleeping, a lot, it was never a good result for them.
So now, he needed to out-think them and give them a response that in ignorance, they couldn’t possibly conceive.
And he had one.
Brasov, Romania
Carl was presently in Brasov, Romania. He had dropped off Bethany Anne and Michael a week and a half ago. This was old-world Transylvania. He would sit on this tarmac for about another eight hours and then be wheels up, headed towards England shortly after that time expired. He had received a couple of beeps on his satellite phone four days ago from Michael letting him know that they were at the location he was looking for.
Carl had a couple of contacts he wanted to touch base with in London. Since he was on the company’s time and had a few days to kill, he figured he might as well fly where he wanted. Sometimes, just sometimes, this job was too good to be true.
Carl didn’t know exactly how Michael ‘made’ children. As he understood it from Bill, Michael was the patriarch of all vampires, not just his family. There was Michael, and then seven children underneath. Two had fled the family many centuries before and were the patriarchs of the dishonored.
Bill was chosen by Michael back at the end of World War II. However, he had one of his children actually transform Bill at the time. Bill had no idea why that was, but he was incredibly powerful for a vampire.
His sire, Stephen, was Michael’s third child and responsible for the area in and around the Mediterranean. He was probably the second most powerful vampire in the world. Stephen was 80% as strong as Michael but he was a little bit more easy going than Michael. It’s one of the reasons that the families around the world didn’t ‘miss’ Michael so much.
While he was respected and loved to a great degree, most of his children really didn’t enjoy him to be around as it had caused an untold amount of stress in the past. Add on top the occasional problems with locals who didn’t understand the children fell a bit from the family tree, at least where ‘honor’ was concerned. They upheld it, but they at least (usually) gave you a chance to make amends.
Not so much with Michael.
A few days later, the plane was heading to London after a stop in Frankfurt, Germany.
Carl had decided to land there on a whim, enjoying some especially good beer.
Landing in Switzerland, Carl took care of financial responsibilities. He added Bethany Anne to the accounts Michael always provided each of his children. In addition to the normal accounts Bill had access to, Michael provided three unfamiliar Swiss accounts with instructions to add Bethany Anne to those as well.
He provided DNA and personal information she would know. He knew a hacker might locate the information so he wasn’t providing it for a true thief. There was always a small chance, he figured, that her mind would be messed up from the transformation so it was an admittedly small test to make sure she was functioning mentally.
In both Switzerland and Germany, Carl would start a low-level AI program he had on his laptop back on the plane and use it to ‘pretend’ talking with Michael back on the plane, keeping up appearances should anyone try to track Michael’s location.
The jet never made it to London. The plane disappeared from the radar approximately half-way across the English Channel in a sudden storm, common to those waters. The search lasted for three days before it was called off. They didn’t find any wreckage, the plane had just vanished.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Carpathian Mountains, Romania
Bethany Anne woke up slowly, as if from a fog trying to remember where she was. It was dark, so dark, and her head felt like she was drugged. Trying to sit up, she bumped her head.
You might want to rest a minute, you have been under for a long time.
Laying back down, she rested a minute pulling what cognitive ability she still had and thought through what the disembodied voice just said.
Wincing in pain, she whispered into the darkness, "Who are you, and where am I? Am I hospitalized?"
No, not hospitalized exactly. My nomenclature is a meaningless string of digits. You are on the surface of the planet Earth in a location called...
It all came back in a rush. Her sickness, Michael, Carl – and coming to the cave in the mountain. Michael had carefully moved her into a deep, deserted area of the cave system whereupon they came out into an area that looked like it was a small, hidden valley. With a little searching around, Michael found the metal ship under hundreds of years of detritus. The ship was obviously not from Earth since it was the same as the one which he encountered a thousand years or more in the past.
Things had started to become a little more clear to Bethany Anne. While a little incredible, if you looked at just the facts, you had to agree that this was a UFO.
She remembered thinking that if nothing else, she had a story for her father if she should ever get to talk with him again.
After finding the portal to go in, Michael explained that there was a place he had slept in so many years ago which had started his change with such pain as he had never felt in all of his, then human, years.
After a good night’s sleep, outside of the ship, it was Bethany Anne’s turn. Michael had warned her that she had to survive the ‘transformation’ long enough to retain her own personality. If she did not, he would be forced to kill her immediately. Those that did not we're not much better than the worst of humanity, just significantly stronger with a lust for human blood.
If she made it beyon
d twenty-four hours, then she would be past the worst of the trial. Michael mentioned before she went under that if she lasted that long, he would make a quick trip to the nearby resort town.
Michael had never mentioned another entity as part of the transformation.
...Romania.
"Water, I need water."
You don't need water at this time. However, it won't hurt you either.
Thinking back on Michael’s comment about hours, she must have made it past the minimum twenty-four hours.
"How long?" her voice was getting stronger. She did not feel like she had cotton mouth this time. "How many hours was I under?"
Over 4,300
"I'm sorry, I thought you said, 4,300. Did I hear you correctly?"
That is the number I told you. However, there is nothing wrong with your hearing as you are not using it right now.
God, she thought, I'm not coming out of this very well at all.
Bethany Anne inhaled, ready to try this conversation again. "Let me see if I have this correct, I am still in the ship, in an enclosed ‘something’. I have been here a significant amount of time beyond twenty-four hours. I am conversing with you, but apparently it must be telepathic because I am not using my hearing. Do I have this right?"
Yes, to the time. No, to the telepathy. I am symbiotically attached and have created multiple connections with both your physical and nervous systems. I have spent the time since you fell asleep examining your physiology and have done my best to mitigate the sloppy programming which caused the painful transformation in the previous subject. Unfortunately, he was my first human subject and I was ill-prepared to accomplish the enhancements I was instructed to accomplish. He was caused much pain. I've had plenty of time to review the previous integration effort so that I was much better prepared for this effort.
Bethany Anne lay very still trying to parse everything she was just told. There were so many tangents she could take from that data dump she needed a second to decide which direction to head. She heard her father's voice in her head from when they would talk during camping trips.
"Sweetheart, if you are ever out in the middle of nowhere, you have to prioritize. You need to be safe, you need water, then you need food."
This pretty much is the definition of nowhere, she thought, I am not in immediate trouble that I am aware of, but let's figure this out.
"Is my body in trouble?"
Negative. I have placed our vehicle in a sort of stasis. Until a few moments ago, it is as if you had not lived but fifteen minutes of your normal time.
Bethany Anne was starting to get a little concerned as the little hints in the conversation were starting to come together. "Wait, did you say 'our' vehicle? Are you talking about the ship, or my body?"
Yes, this physical manifestation made of organic matter.
Panic was waking her just fine, Bethany Anne thought. “Wait, I didn't sign up for having a passenger! Disconnect your plug-ins and disengage or whatever it is you did, undo it. Michael never said that he had an attached alien with him!"
Bethany Anne, that is not possible. My mission requires me to be able to support your planet in the coming altercations with the Z’terath. In order to accomplish this I must be able to move. This ship has been unable to translate locations since I crashed here many of your years ago. I have engaged and watched what radio and television I can occasionally receive along with the communication between aircraft if they are directly overhead. I have little knowledge of the 'bigger' picture and if I cannot find out what is going on, your planet is eventually going to be in a galactic war which it will be ill-prepared to participate in, except as a minor footnote as a quickly subjugated race.
Furthermore, I made a calculated decision to connect to your nervous system while the transformation was occurring.
Bethany Anne felt a pang of embarrassment. Wait, she thought, I don’t have any reason for embarrassment.
Comprehension followed like a glowing cloud of flame with the associated anger. "Are you telling me you fucked up? Your little 'calculated decision' somehow blew up in your face?" She started to feel up and down her body looking for the connections the... voice... said it had. This shit, she thought, was going to have to end right here, and right now. “Open this damn sarcophagus!"
There are no external connections, so you can cease your examination to locate them. Yes, I didn't realize that the virus used to transform your physical capabilities would affect my own efforts. I have no choice in this matter if I cared to leave. I am permanently integrated into your body. The transformation took my physical body and created a mutation with yours. My mind, if you will, has been modified and I am presently integrated with your spinal cord. From here I have connections throughout, well, everywhere. However, I have been working for over 4,000 hours to accomplish bringing you to consciousness. I don't understand enough of your motor coordination to accomplish movement. So, you will need to find the inner lock near your right hand, twist it in a circle and it will cause the medical pod to release us.
"Release me, you mean. You snaky alien symbiont. You are an unwelcome passenger and this discussion isn't over. What can be done, can be undone! If I could, I would kick your ass.” Bethany Anne started to try and move her arms. “You’re lucky I don’t really believe in self castigation. Mostly.” There was that one guy, Matt, a one-night stand in Baltimore she still gave herself grief over.
Bethany Anne was searching for the lock while directing her ire at her new 'roomie'. Finding it, she twisted her arm to get it to unlock. The insides of the pod started to glow from lights brightening.
"I am so going to give Michael a piece of my mind. Scary vampire or not, this is bullshit.”
There is no one near us.
"What? Why the hell not?" The pod finished opening and Bethany Anne, devoid of clothing and, she thought, buff as hell, got out of the pod on mostly steady legs. "Wait, did I speak that out loud of are you reading my mind?"
Her point of view seemed higher than before. Confused, she looked down to see if she was on a small podium and noticed that her legs were different.
Here legs were definitely longer, shapelier, and drop-dead gorgeous. She had bemoaned the fact her whole life that her legs were stumpy and it was a part she hated about her body.
Nope, she decided, not giving these legs back. Possession is nine tenths of the law. Well, it was when your friends were named Smith & Wesson.
Well, to be fair, they could also be named Sig Sauer, Heckler & Koch, Springfield, Beretta, Colt, Sturm, Ruger, Remington, Glock or Browning. All good friends when you’re in a disagreement with idiots.
Well, I am connected to everything in here.
Idiots that weren’t, she concluded, inside your own body.
"This shit just keeps getting better and better. Can you tell me what the date is? Michael said he would be back in just a couple of days. How many days was I under? When did he leave?"
Michael left approximately thirty hours after you left the pod. He has not returned within the scanning range of the craft. You have been under a little over 179 days. I don't know the present date. I haven't been able to connect with the craft's radio devices since the, uh, transformation. Actually, the hours and date are probably mostly accurate.
"What do you mean, 'mostly accurate'?"
Plus or minus two percent.
Looking around the room of the craft with the medical pod, she pulled out a bench that was connected with the wall and sat down.
Safe, check.
"Is there any water in this ship?"
There are devices which can pull the humidity out of the atmosphere, but you don't need it.
"Why is that?" She stood up and started towards the door. If she didn't need water, then she was good for a while without food.
Because the energy needed for your body is not wholly in this dimension. Part of the modifications included creating taps into my ethereal dimension where I draw energy. This allows you to go without food an
d water for an extended amount of time
"Do I have to drink blood? Because, I have to admit I’m not really looking forward to that.” Maybe there was something good to come out of this colossal fuck-up.
Most of the time, probably not. Blood, human or other, has connection to the ethereal as well. We have a limited tap directly. Provided you don't do anything which takes too much effort, you will not need to consume blood.
"Define 'too much effort'."
Physical exertion for extended periods of time, significant healing, pretty much almost dying.
“Well, that provides a positive reinforcement to stay safe,” she muttered. Looking around the room, it wasn’t that big, the sarcophagus, or whatever the medical pod was, had about four feet of space on all sides around it. There were white walls, which were remarkably clean, all things considered. There was also an outline of a partial circle about eight feet high on the wall to her right. Little rectangles with rounded corners existed on all walls. She figured they must be drawers of some type.
Death Becomes Her (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 1) Page 11